


Fire and Fury

by firefright



Series: Talon and the Hood [5]
Category: Batman - All Media Types, DCU, DCU (Comics), Under the Red Hood
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, Character Death, Dick Grayson has issues, Dick Grayson is a Talon, Jason Todd Has Issues, M/M, Non-Graphic Violence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-08-27
Updated: 2015-08-30
Packaged: 2018-04-17 13:36:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,717
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4668584
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/firefright/pseuds/firefright
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Jason's plan to show Batman the error of his ways comes to fruition with Talon's help, though the results may not be what he hoped.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

Batman and the replacement - the replacement's replacement, he thinks for a bitter moment - chase Jason, a bare whisper behind him as he runs hell for leather across Gotham's rooftops.

Talon's somewhere close, he knows, feels it like a prickling on the back of his neck and a certainty in his bones, covering the higher ground in case Jason isn't quite fast enough. If they catch him, if they even _look_ like they're about to catch him he'll intervene but not before. He's the ace in the hole, the ghost in the shadows, the back up should Jason miscalculate his ability to stay ahead of the Bat for a second time.

He leaps then, cuts the line that's about to wrap around his ankle, and rebounds off the side of the next building with ease. His heart is pounding with adrenaline as he makes the next jump to catch the hanging cable, intimately aware of just how small his lead on his pursuers is, and crashes down into the train station below. 

Just as planned.

The bike is waiting exactly where he left it and Jason wastes no time pulling the machine out of it's hiding place before climbing aboard without a second to spare. He hears more than he see's the vigilantes come down through the roof after him, but the flick of the switch in his pocket arms the explosive trap they prepared and he's pleased to find when the smoke clears that the new Robin is huddled between the rails he sheltered in, clutching at his leg in pain from what must have been a bad landing. Jason would've felt sorry for him (and a little piece of him still does) except that the fall took the new kid safely out of the game just the way they wanted without making them have to go to further extremes. 

Timothy Drake isn't part of this, this is between them and the old man and an injured leg will keep him all cooped up at the Manor, or maybe even shipped off to the Titan's tower if Bruce is really feeling the heat. He hopes he does.

Jason smiles beneath his helmet, turning his head to look over his shoulder as the train thunders down the track towards them. He can't resist calling out, goading his former mentor one step further. 

"You haven't lost your touch, Bruce!"

He can stew on that for a while Jason thinks, chuckling as he guns the engine of his bike and uses the cover of the train carriages to make his escape back into the city.

*****

Dick catches him the moment he arrives home, dropping down from the fire escape above to pull Jason off the bike before he even has the chance to dismount on his own and pushing him up against the alley wall. The adrenaline from the chase is still in his blood and he bites his lip with anticipation, face still concealed by his helmet.

"That was close."

"Not close enough." Jason insists, tilting his head back as Dick's fingers go to his throat, pushing against the bruises that linger under the high collar of his shirt. He'd quickly realised that his lover had a fixation on his neck and he can't, doesn't ever want to, complain about it, even if it meant him feeling stiff in a morning. "Everything went exactly as we wanted to."

"If he had caught you -"

"If he had, you'd have stopped him." And Dick can't see the grin on his face as he says it. Jason feels elated, alive with the thrill of victory. "This is going to work, it's going to work, T." He keeps talking, low and excited, his fingers pressing to Dick's chest through the leather as he feels the others hands seeking the catch to release his helmet.

"We even managed to put the new Robin safely out of commission, that's a step up on the schedule."

Those words give Talon pause and Jason curiously watches him shift his gaze back to the mouth of the alley. "... he's all right?"

No, he doesn't feel a pang of irritation - of insecurity - at the sound of that concern, not at all. Robin was part of the point they were here to make after all, a very important part; no more child soldiers lost to the cause, no more dead birds because Batman couldn't put a maniac down. "Hurt his leg, a sprain by the look of it, don't think it was a break. So long as we keep up the pressure on Black Mask it'll keep him out of our way long enough."

The helmet finally opens with a hiss and Dick wastes no time in yanking it off his head. At least he doesn't immediately drop it to the floor this time, Jason thinks, the way he usually does when they're in the safety of one of his safe houses - he hasn't told him about the explosives built inside, keeps holding back - because his Talon wasn't kidding when he told him that he didn't like his new persona. He's pretty sure he'll find the helmet gone after the end, if it survives that long.

Fingers comb back his hair, loosening the strands from where sweat had plastered them down against his scalp and they kiss, hard, wet, reaffirming that everything really is still okay. Jason might be the one in charge of the mad plan to force the Bat's hand but here, in this, Dick is the one who leads.

Surrendering himself into another's hands has never been easy, never will be, especially not after what that madman did to him. Dick though, Dick makes it easy. Once upon a time Jason used to be afraid of him, as much as he was intrigued and intimidated by the boy Bruce that still held on a pedestal even after he'd fallen. He'd been a costume in a case, a laughing ghost on a computer screen and then a deadly horror in the night before Jason tamed him. 

No... He couldn't say he'd tamed Dick, that was the wrong word. His Talon wasn't tame, not by far, he only listened to Jason because he wanted to, because...

Thinking about labelling it as love made his stomach do cartwheels inside him and he still wasn't sure it was the right term. It felt deeper than that, more like _possession_ , like a soul-deep need that probably wasn't healthy on either side, except neither of them could bring themselves to care. Maybe it didn't even need words, this thing between them, maybe it just _was_ \- and if it happened to feel like every kiss Dick gave him stole away a tiny piece of his soul then well, that's just fine with Jason. He's more than willing to share that if it means Dick will be his.

... Jason deliberately doesn't think about the fear he had on returning that Dick would be gone when he got back to Gotham. The worry that it would be just him, alone, without anyone on his side as he embarked on his quest to bring true justice to the city. His relationship with the lone surviving Talon was one thing he hadn't been able to bring himself to tell Talia about, which also made it the only thing he couldn't ask her for information on. Dick had always been his secret when he was a boy, even away from Bruce and he still didn't want to share him with anyone. He didn't want to risk losing him to the machinations of the Bat or the League.

It's selfish, he's selfish, but after everything can't he be, just a little?

They kiss for longer than is safe out in the alley before finally Dick pulls back, looking more like a satisfied cat than a bird. Jason kisses his thumb when it presses to his mouth, darts out his tongue to swipe across his skin, then jerks his head in the direction of the door. "Come on, let's go inside."

******

Later there's a fight with a team of assassins alongside Batman that feels just right, like another piece of him has slotted back into place. He tries not to think about what that may mean as he leaves his former mentor behind with the bloodied sword, gifting him the last clue Bruce will need to prove his suspicions over the Red Hood's identity.

Talon stops his mind from wandering back to it afterwards, fucking Jason like he's never been fucked before in his short, messed up life. It must've been the fight, he thinks in the daze of the afterglow, the one Dick watched but was asked not to interfere in. He's not going to be able to stick to this policy of hiding much longer if Jason keeps getting himself into dangerous situations alone and it makes him keenly aware of how his lovers patience is wearing thinner. 

"Just a little longer," he murmurs into Dick's sweat damp hair, "Just a little more."

After he tries to compromise by first taking Dick with him to police the drug dealers working for the Red Hood, killing the one's who break the sacred rule on dealing to kids, then to shoot the rocket launcher at Black Mask's window and it helps a little, just enough. The whispers of the vicious shadow that follows the city's newest crime boss grow in the grapevine of Gotham's underworld as a result.

Then, finally, they get the news they've been waiting for from Jason's contact in Arkham. 

"He's out..." Jason whispers, head spinning as he hangs up, then destroys the burner phone by crushing it beneath his heel. "The Joker's out."

Strong arms wrap around him from behind, pulling him back against Dick's chest. The hold keeps him in the moment, away from the green-laced dreams of bloody vengeance and the memories of the sound the crowbar made when it hit him.

"Then we need to get moving." He feels more than hears the words that Dick speaks against the back of his neck, can't help shivering at the promise they hold. 

It was finally time to set things right.


	2. Chapter 2

It all goes so well, up until it doesn't.

They capture the Joker and take him back to what will be the stage for the final act together. Talon stands by as Jason raises the crowbar, watching him beat the madman for a while with a cold expression on his face that the younger man can't read into, but eventually it's him who stills Jason's hand, squeezing his wrist tightly.

"Enough." Talon whispers, "Stop."

He's trembling he realises, shaking with anger and somehow he doesn't flinch when the monster on the floor starts to giggle.

"Say, do I know you boys?" Joker wriggles in his bindings, speaking, grinning through bloodied teeth like one of Jason's nightmares, "Because you both seem _real_ familiar."

They don't answer as they throw him in the closet and shut the door, pausing only to make sure he won't be getting out on his own any time soon. The seconds are counting down and the guest of honour will be here shortly.

Jason's helmet comes off for one final kiss before he heads out to meet Batman, "You ready?" he asks Talon, running his hands down the sides of his ribs, his waist, letting his fingers linger on his hips.

"Go." his partner fixes him with a piercing look in his gold-ringed eyes as he pushes Jason back gently, "He's coming." They don't have anymore time to waste.

******

"How many more?!" Not even twenty minutes later and Jason is snarling, keeping the gun trained on Batman's head while his boot pins the Joker to the floor, "How many more dead and lost Robins will it take before you get the message? You way doesn't _work_."

He hurts. Their fight had been brief but brutal, crashing across rooftops and through doors. Jason using all the nasty little tricks he knew to keep the other man off balance until Bruce had finally stopped holding back and sent them crashing into this room. Now he feels like every inch of his torso is one giant bruise and all he can taste is his own blood, but the worst thing is that he doesn't know where Talon is. He should have been here waiting yet there was nothing Jason could see but the Joker and shadows.

If Talon is hiding he's doing it well.

"I _can't_ Jason, if I do -"

"Why not?!" His voice isn't cracking, he tells himself. "I'm not talking about Scarecrow, Dent or Riddler, I'm talking about him!" He kicks the Joker in the ribs and even when he's in pain the maniac still sounds like he's laughing, "I'm talking about the Court of Owls and others like them! The truly evil ones, the ones who..." He swallows. "The ones who took us away from you."

He see's Batman's grim expression break for a moment, the allusion to the loss of his first son ripping open an even older, more painful wound than the one Jason had left him with. _It shouldn't have happened to me, losing him should have been enough. Losing two of us should have been **more** than enough._

Where is his partner? 

"After what happened to him... I thought I'd be the last person you ever let him hurt. The last kid you ever put in that position." Jason breathes out hard through his nose as he spares a glance down at the Joker, "If it had been you who died, if it had been you he'd murdered, I wouldn't have let anything stop me from putting this disgusting piece of filth in the ground where he belongs!" 

"I can't--" 

"Why?!" he screams, "Because it's too hard?!" 

"NO!" Bruce's voice is like thunder, a loud clap that tapers off slowly and echoes through the room. "God no, it'd be too easy. You don't understand, you never understood," and Jason wonders how he dares say that to him, how he has the nerve. "Barely a day goes by where I don't think about killing him, sometimes it's all I can think about. But if I did that, if I beat him, if I repaid on him all the suffering he's caused to others and then finally, _finally_ killed him? I'd never come back from that place." 

"You should have done it anyway! You could have saved the lives of hundreds if you'd had the guts to do what has to be done!" 

The Joker starts to chuckle, giggling again at the show, and he's ignoring Jason as he focuses on Bruce because Batman's all the Joker's ever cared about. Casualties like Jason are the love notes he leaves behind, poems written in victim's blood as part of the twisted game he plays. "Aw!" he coos, "You do think about me!" 

"No Jason. I can't... I'm sorry." Bruce looks it too, but Jason's too angry to let himself be affected, too filled with green fuelled rage as he pulls his spare gun out of his belt and throws it across the room at him. It's caught in black gauntlets on reflex. 

He can't wait any longer, can't wait for his Talon to show. It's now or never. "Well too bad,because I'm not going to give you a choice." 

"I won't--" 

Jason snatches the Joker up from the floor, heaving the maniac back against his chest with his left arm around his throat and the muzzle of the gun at his temple. "This is what it's all been about. You! Us! Him!" It's hard to read Bruce's face under the cowl but Jason had a lot of practice back when he was Robin. The twist of his mouth reads confusion for a moment at the plural _us_. "It's time for you to make your choice, because if you don't kill this piece of degenerate filth I will! And if you want to stop me, if you care so much about this deranged freak," he swallows hard, "you're going to have to shoot me, right in my face!" 

He's pleading, begging under his mask for Bruce to see sense, to do what has to be done and prove the love he has for his sons. To not fail his children again. The Joker's chattering with his own twisted excitement at the ultimatum but Jason doesn't even hear the words when his entire focus is on the man in front of him. 

"I won't." his former mentor repeats, dropping the gun like it's burning his hand. He turns and Jason's mouth falls open in utter disbelief as Batman starts to walk away from him. 

"No!" He won't let this happen, he won't let Bruce avoid his responsibilities. "It's him or me! You have to decide! Him or me! Decide!" And the green bubble of rage bursts, the waters overflow as he points the gun at Bruce's back with his finger tightening on the trigger. The Joker is laughing, _laughing_ like it's the greatest show in the world and then-- 

\--then he stops. 

Jason looks down at the same time that Bruce turns around, a batarang primed in his hand that he doesn't throw, and they both see the cause, the familiar knife handle sticking out of the Joker's heart. 

"Oh... that's not funny." the madman mutters with his last breath, "That's not funny at all." 

The shadow at the broken window moves, sliding into the room as the body falls from Jason's suddenly lax hold. "Talon?" 

"Dick?" Bruce says at the same time as the man passes him by on silent footsteps to Jason's side. 

"What did you do? I thought... it was supposed to be him..." he keeps mumbling, disbelieving as Talon eases the gun from his hand. "This wasn't the plan. It was supposed to be Bruce who did it." He's dead, the Joker's dead. 

"What is this?!" Their mentor's voice rises as he watches the two of them, teeth gritted as he reads the familiarity they have around each other by their tone and body language. There's growing desperation under the confused anger and shock at what just happened, maybe even a little fear at seeing two ghosts standing side by side. 

Talon ignores him. He only has eyes for Jason as he thumbs the safety back on the firearm and tucks it into his own belt. "It was," he says, and Jason stares at him, wide-eyed behind the white lenses of his domino mask. "But it didn't have to be." 

"No, this wasn't the plan! You promised me you were with me!" 

"I am with you, little bird." Talon holds firm to his lover's wrist but sounds quietly sorrowful as Jason tries to jerk away from him, the betrayal writ across his face. "That's why I did it." 

"Shut up!" Jason throws his other fist at Talon's face and it's easily ducked as his partner moves like water, fluid and untouchable, to wrap himself around him from behind. "Let me go!" 

"Both of you--" Bruce is tearing at his cowl, pulling it down from his head -- he always seemed to think seeing his face would magically help fix what the Court turned Dick into -- and Jason can see all of his expression now, read his emotions clear as day as he turns horrified eyes on his second son. "What did you _do_?" 

Jason laughs like he's trying to fill the void left by the dead supervillain on the floor and hates himself for it. "Guess I always did manage to keep one secret from you, huh Bruce?" Then the anger powers over him again, hard and bitter. "Don't look at me like that! Don't you dare! It's not your right to have any say over us anymore!" 

Talon's arms tighten around him, he's watching Bruce warily over Jason's shoulder and he can feel the tension in the hold. Neither of them are okay as they face their adoptive father down and Jason's torn between being hurt by what his partner did and feeling protective over him because of the way Bruce looks at him, like he wants to tear Dick away and take him home back to the manor where nothing can ever touch him again. Jason swears he would never let that happen, never. 

"It's going to be fine." Talon whispers, and Jason doesn't know if he can believe him. 

It clicks for Bruce then. "The Red Hood's Shadow, it's you... why, Dick?" He takes a single step forward, extending his hand towards him like he did before so many years before in a desperate plea. "It didn't have to be this way." 

Jason feels Talon straighten up against his back, hears the void of emotion in his voice as he says, "Yes it did. You weren't going to do it, you never would." he transfers his grip on Jason's arms to a one-handed hold, making it possible for him to reach into the younger man's back pocket with his right hand. "So I did it for you. Both of you." _What?_

The trigger for the explosives in the wall, Jason realises, that's what Talon is going for and Bruce, while he might not know exactly that, has been at this long enough to know the movement heralds nothing good. 

"Dick, don't--!" 

"You have twenty seconds." Talon ignores his shout as he presses the trigger and the quiet beeping of a digital timer fills the room, eerily similar to the one Jason once thought would be the last thing he ever heard. "Stop us or stop the bomb, your choice." 

He releases Jason then, pushing him towards the window as Bruce turns towards the source of the sound. Jason realises the bluff as he stumbles forwards because Bruce won't be able to tell the exact size of the explosive or how much damage it could do to the building and surrounding area until he gets next to it, and predictably, as he always does, he lets the mission win out over his personal desires. Batman chooses the bomb and not his children, letting Talon uses that distraction to haul Jason out into the safety of the night, leaving their adopted father behind them, alone but for a dead clown and his renewed grief. 

There is no explosion. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi, I hope everyone enjoyed the conclusion to this! I feel bad for being so mean to Bruce in this story but the plot was insistent ;;
> 
> The next part will be dealing with the aftermath of this, then I have at least a couple more fic ideas for this 'verse after that. As always thank you so much for your kudos, they really mean the world to me :)

**Author's Note:**

> This is the first chapter of what will cover the rest of the Under the Red Hood storyline in this series, with the second part being posted on Sunday. I'm pretty excited about it XD Though the means of Jason's resurrection, and Talia's involvement in it, are taken from the comics, the rest is based more on the animated movie adaptation, as it was my first introduction to Jason as a character and forever my favourite.
> 
> The title of this part is taken from the song 'Fire and Fury' by Skillet, which is major inspiration for me at the moment.


End file.
